Hundreds of Zomato employees have taken deep voluntary salary cuts to help conserve the company’s cash flow amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said on Twitter.
In this photo taken on December 24, 2018, an Indian delivery man working with the food delivery app Zomato sits on his bike in a business district in Mumbai. A surge in the popularity of food-ordering apps like Uber Eats, Swiggy, and Zomato provides a welcome source of income for many as India’s unemployment rate sits reportedly at a staggering 45-year high. Indranil Mukherjee / AFP
India this week has imposed a nationwide 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of the disease. The number of confirmed cases in the country has already crossed 500.
“Dining out in many countries is badly hit,” Goyal said, adding that “thousands of restaurants have been severely hit because of their immobilized workforce due to the lockdown.”
Aside from the salary cuts, Zomato will facilitate loans for its food delivery and restaurant partners.
It will also give a free two-month membership extension for its premium Zomato Gold members in India, the UAE, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Lebanon, Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal, and Qatar.
To make up for the lost earnings of its delivery partners, the startup is creating a fund. “We are also donating for our delivery partner fund, as well as Feed the Daily Wager campaign, to support the community during these times,” Goyal said. “We also hope that we get government support to help us with this.”
Zomato’s rival, Swiggy, said it is working with local governments to remain operational and extend its support especially to customers in need.
Earlier this year, Zomato acquired Uber’s food delivery business in India, becoming one of the largest food delivery companies in the country. Zomato and Swiggy now control about 80% of the market.
Outside of India, Indonesian unicorn Gojek has also created a US$6 million fund to support all its drivers, merchants, and partners. The company’s co-CEOs and senior management team will donate 25% of their annual salary to support the fund.
Editing by Charmaine de Lazo
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